High temperature-induced delay of flowering is a major problem during the production of short-day (SD) plants such as Chrysanthemum.We have investigated the heat-sensitive hours for flowering in C. ...seticuspe. Heat treatment at 30°C was applied for 16, 8, or 4 h d-1, at different times of the day, under SD conditions (8 h photoperiod from 08.00 - 16.00 h), using 20°C as the optimum temperature. Heating between midnight and dawn (00.00 - 08.00 h) delayed floral initiation for up to 2 d, but delayed flowering for > 25 d, which represented the heat-sensitive hours for capitulum development. Heating during this period suppressed expression of the FLOWERING LOCUS T-like3 (CsFTL3) gene, a promoter of flowering induced in leaves by SDs. However, expression of CsFTL3 was higher compared to non-floralinductive photoperiods with a night-break. The anti-florigenic FT/TFL1 family protein gene (CsAFT) is an inhibitor of flowering induced in leaves by long-days. Expression of CsAFT remained low during heating under SDs, even when the plants flowered late. Our results show that high temperatures had little effect on floral initiation, which required suppression of CsAFT and a slight induction of CsFTL3 gene expression under SDs. In contrast, a high temperature between 00.00 - 08.00 h appeared to delay flowering by decreasing the level of expression of CsFTL3 required for capitulum development.
In this paper, a flexible approach for chip to wafer high-accurate alignment and bonding is developed using a self-assembled monolayer (SAM). In this approach, a hydrophobic SAM, FDTS (CF 3 (CF 2 ) 7 ...(CH 2 ) 2 SiCl 3 ), is successfully patterned by lift-off process on an oxidized silicon wafer to define the binding-sites. A certain volume of H 2 O (μ/mm 2 ) is dropped and then spread on the non-coated hydrophilic SiO 2 binding-sites for self-alignment of various microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and IC chips by capillary force of H 2 O. Our results demonstrate that reasonably high alignment speed (in milliseconds) and excellent alignment accuracy ( ≤ 1 μm) are achieved when the difference in the measured contact angle between hydrophobic FDTS and hydrophilic binding-sites is >;70°. It is also found that the hydrophilic frame at the edge of each binding-site is effective in achieving successful self-alignment, while a super fine pattern at the center of the binding-site can be used to control the bonding strength. The effects of the Au/Cr thin film pattern on self-alignment are studied and discussed in this paper to enable the application of the above approach in various MEMS-IC integration processes, especially for low-cost mass production of wireless sensor nodes.
Inflammatory skin diseases are exacerbated by psychiatric stress. Previous studies have shown that the activity of epidermal antigen-presenting cells (APCs), Langerhans cells (LCs) and keratinocytes ...(KCs), is affected by stress. Hapten application causes migration of LCs to draining lymph nodes (DLNs). Recently, we found that hapten application also activates epidermal cells (ECs) to mature potent APCs, and that the main APCs in these populations are KCs. Thus, DLN cells and ECs following hapten application are available for estimating the APC function of LCs and KCs in stress studies. To investigate the mechanism of exacerbation of skin inflammation by chronic stress by observing the effect of isolation stress transversally on the skin immune and neurohormonal systems. Contact sensitivity (CS) was elicited in BALB/c mice. The APC function of LCs and ECs following hapten application was assessed by the CS-inducing activity in the recipient mice. Levels of neurohormonal transmitters and proinflammatory cytokines were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Cell surface molecules were detected using flow cytometry. Expression of mRNA for cytokines, neurohormonal receptors and a differentiation marker by ECs was determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Acute stress (2-day isolation) suppressed induction of CS, while chronic stress (30-day isolation) markedly enhanced induction of CS. DLN cells from chronically stressed mice contained increased numbers of LCs and exhibited enhanced APC function for inducing CS. In contrast, the APC function of KCs from these mice was markedly suppressed. Serum corticosterone levels were enhanced in acute stress, while substance P (SP) levels were enhanced in chronic stress. Corticotrophin-releasing hormone receptor-1 mRNA expression in ECs was enhanced in acute stress, while SP receptor (i.e. neurokinin-1 receptor) mRNA expression in ECs was enhanced in chronic stress. Production and mRNA expression of the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-1 alpha and tumour necrosis factor- alpha by ECs following hapten application was markedly suppressed in chronic stress. Expression by ECs of E-cadherin, which adheres LCs and KCs homophilically, was suppressed in chronic stress. In addition, these cells exhibited impaired differentiation, i.e. suppressed spontaneous proliferation and enhanced mRNA expression for transglutaminase-3. Chronic isolation stress may enhance CS responses by upregulation of the APC activity of LCs and the SP system. However, dysregulation of KC function and differentiation by chronic stress suggests that KCs may not contribute to the enhancement of the CS response positively. These complex changes suggest that chronic isolation stress in mice may provide a possible model system for studying the mechanism of exacerbation of skin inflammation by stress.
Internal tandem duplication of the FLT3 gene and point mutations of the N-RAS gene are the most frequent somatic mutations causing aberrant signal-transduction in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). ...However, their prognostic importance is unclear. In this study, their prognostic significance was analyzed in 201 newly diagnosed patients with de novo AML except acute promyelocytic leukemia. Three patients had mutations in both genes, 43 had only theFLT3 gene mutation, 25 had only the N-RAS gene mutation, and 130 had neither. These mutations seemed to occur independently. Both mutations were related to high peripheral white blood cell counts, and the FLT3 gene mutation was infrequently observed in the French-American-British (FAB)-M2 type. AML cases with wild FLT3/mutant N-RAS had a lower complete remission (CR) rate than those with wild FLT3/wild N-RAS, whereas the presence of mutant FLT3 did not affect the CR rate. Univariate analysis showed that unfavorable prognostic factors for overall survival were age 60 years or older (P = .0002), cytogenetic data (P = .002), FAB types other than M2 (P = .002), leukocytosis over 100 ± 109/L (P = .003), and the FLT3 gene mutation (P = .004). However, the N-RAS gene mutation was only a marginal prognostic factor (P = .06). For the subjects under 60 years old, multivariate analysis showed that theFLT3 gene mutation was the strongest prognostic factor (P = .008) for overall survival. The FLT3 gene mutation, whose presence is detectable only by genomic polymerase chain reaction amplification and gel electrophoresis, might serve as an important molecular marker to predict the prognosis of patients with AML.
We have theoretically designed and experimentally demonstrated polarization-independent all-optical switching in a nonlinear GaInAsP-InP highmesa distributed feedback (DFB) waveguide. The device, ...which is composed of a highmesa waveguide stripe and a vertically etched Bragg reflector, can be simply fabricated using one-step electron beam lithography and a reactive ion etching process. The device is suitable for integration with other photonic devices such as semiconductor optical amplifiers and wavelength converters. The structural birefringence of the device has a dependence on the waveguide parameters such as the refractive index and thickness of core and cladding. The structural birefringence was successfully eliminated by adjusting the width of the highmesa waveguide. The nonlinear vertical-groove DFB highmesa waveguide is attractive for a polarization-independent all-optical switch from the viewpoint of a large grating coupling coefficient, as compared with a grating-loaded DFB highmesa waveguide. The polarization dependence of the grating coupling coefficient has also been investigated experimentally. It is possible to obtain the polarization-independent grating coupling coefficient by adjusting the grating depth in the vertical-groove DFB highmesa waveguide, together with structural zero-birefringence of the device. Polarization-independent all-optical thresholding and bistable switching operations have been successfully demonstrated in the nonlinear vertical-groove DFB highmesa waveguide.
We demonstrate a new technique for all-optical wavelength conversion to 1.55 μm by using a 1.3-μm signal that directly pumps a distributed feedback semiconductor optical amplifier. Data polarity can ...be selected by tuning the probe wavelength to different regions of the Bragg resonance. Polarity-inverted signals exhibit a digital-like transfer function with an on-off ratio of 4 and 2.4 at 155.5 and 622 Mb/s, respectively. This simple wavelength-conversion scheme is insensitive to the direction and polarization of the 1.31-μm signal, and should be affordable for local access and other cost-sensitive optical-network layers.
The high aspect ratio (HAR) quantum well was proposed as a general design principle to overcome the tradeoff problem between light absorption and carrier collection in multiple quantum-well (MQW) ...solar cells. An HAR-MQW structure consists of thin wells and barriers, and its fundamental strategies are 1) thinner wells to enhance the light absorption for 1HH transition and make it possible to absorb the same amount of light with a thinner MQW region; 2) thinner barriers to allow the photogenerated carriers to be extracted by means of tunneling transport; and 3) deeper wells to obtain the same effective bandgap as thicker wells because of the stronger confinement. The enhanced absorption coefficient for HAR-MQW was proved by the measurement of both photoabsorption and the quantum efficiency at a sufficiently large reverse bias. Stronger photon absorption via 1HH transition was achieved with a smaller total thickness of the wells area. In the HAR-MQW cell, although the transport of the heavy holes was found to still be dominated by thermionic processes due to its large effective mass, tunneling of the electrons was clearly observed, and the extraction efficiency of photoexcited electrons remained much higher than that of a normal MQW cell at forward biases.
Runoff characteristics of nine kinds of herbicides from paddy fields were surveyed in the Kozakura River, that is one of the tributaries flowing into the Lake of Kasumigaura, over a period of 23 ...April to 30 June (before and after rice transplantation) of year. The flow rates of river water and the concentrations of herbicides in the river water were measured every day in May and every 2 days in April and June at six survey sites along the river. The runoff characteristics of herbicides were elucidated by taking account of the rainfall data, the detailed application data (application date and quantities of herbicides applied to each paddy field in a region), and their physico-chemical properties. The runoff rates (the runoff/application amounts ratio) were calculated for each herbicide, resulting in the range of 8.2–22.4%. The runoff rates were correlated fairly well with octanol–water partition coefficient, log
P
ow, rather than with water solubility of herbicides.
A kinetic study was done on the decomposition of source materials used in metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) such as trimethylgallium, trimethylindium, tertiarybutylarsine, ...tertiarybutylphosphine and dimethylzinc. The purpose of this study was to construct reaction models with accurate rate constants, which are required for the numerical analysis of MOVPE process and computer assisted process optimization. For the measurements we employed a quartz-tube cracking reactor and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) as the gas monitoring system. First, the decomposition rate of each source was measured and the ability of the system to determine source gas decomposition rates was validated. Next the effect of substrate surfaces on the decomposition rates and the effect of gas mixing were examined. We observed that surface reaction rates were not negligible in the decomposition of some sources, and that the decomposition rates of group III sources increased when they were mixed with group V sources. The results of this study showed that the effect of substrates and gas mixing need to be properly accounted for in numerical models to accurately simulate epitaxial growth process.
